Name: The Weight of a Soul
Rating: 3.416666666666667 (12 reviews)
ISBN: 9781635830446

Elizabeth Tammi

When her sister is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Lena strikes a gruesome deal with the Norse gods to bring her back and finds herself in the middle of an impending doomsday--all while discovering dangerous secrets about her sister's identity.

The Weight of a Soul

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Author: Elizabeth Tammi

Book Series: Standalone (please Elizabeth Tammi make another book in this series?)

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: December 3, 2019

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 15+ (sexual content, almost rape TW, murder, violence, gore, Loki)

Publisher: Flux

Pages: 320

Amazon Link

Synopsis: When Lena's younger sister Fressa is found dead, their whole Viking clan mourns—but it is Lena alone who never recovers. Fressa is the sister that should've lived, and Lena cannot rest until she knows exactly what killed Fressa and why—and how to bring her back. She strikes a dark deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, and begins a new double life to save her sister.

But as Lena gets closer to bringing Fressa back, she dredges up dangerous discoveries about her own family, and finds herself in the middle of a devastating plan to spur Ragnarök –a deadly chain of events leading to total world destruction.

Still, with her sister's life in the balance, Lena is willing to risk it all. She's willing to kill. How far will she go before the darkness consumes her?

Review: Holy cow this book was AMAZING! I loved the characters, the writing was well done, and the plot was so interesting from start to finish. The pacing was also perfection for me and I finished this book in about 5 hours. The book had me crying most of the way through and I loved how the author weaved in Norse mythology all around the book. It really felt like a true Viking book.

The only downside is that I want a second book. Now. More Loki and more Fressa!

Verdict: Definitely a book you can’t put down!

Ariel Duke

As someone that is very familiar with Norse mythology, this book was very enjoyable. I loved the focus on the sister relationship and the strong female characters represented throughout. The book took me on a wild ride as I tried to guess what would serve as the ultimate solution for Lena. The influence of the gods in their affairs seemed to fit with the existing mythology and I was not able to guess the conclusion until very close to the conclusion of the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys to read about strong female leads with a bit of Norse mythology thrown in.

Leelynn Brady

Death, Sexual Assault (near rape), Murder,
Violence



Bisexual, Chinese (minor character)

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Fantastic Flying Book Club, Netgalley, and Flux for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Okay like I was mentioning in the beginning, I was so freaking not expecting this to be a Norse mythology saturated book that didn’t fully involve Valkyries because most of the ones that I read were about them. This one got so interesting because it dealt with death, but more on the human side and what someone would do in order to save someone that they love with all of their lives. What kind of deal would you take in order to save them?

I will say that I was extremely sad at how little we got to learn about Fressa before she ends up being killed under mysterious circumstances – Not a spoiler FYI, it’s in the synopsis – and I was honestly dying to see more of her before that! It seemed like it was getting good with Fressa and then all of a sudden she’s just dead. And no real cause of death that could be found on the body.

Lena – full name Magdalena – was extremely broken after finding her sister dead. And I could totally understand it because right before that happened, there was really bad drama between her and their family. All because of the responsibilities of being a Chief’s daughter and all that. Ugh, I hate rules.

But anyway, after finding her sister dead without any explanation, she and her mother completely shut down. Her father goes off to blame some other clan for Fressa’s death even though he literally just got back from a year of being away from home, and that’s the closest to being normal that this whole family can feel. Lena ends up somehow meeting Hela, the Goddess of Death, and she makes a deal to exchange her sister’s soul for another soul, so Fressa can come back to life.

Not to mention their village has been encased in darkness for some reason earlier than usual, and apparently the end of days are coming. So that’s another problem.

I feel like Lena had to basically fight against her nature to heal, since she has been the apothecary’s apprentice for years. But under Hela’s deal, she somehow has to bring her a soul. And how else can you bring a soul to the Goddess of Death except… killing? And then the whole Ragnarock thing as well… is Fressa’s soul so much more involved in this apocalypse than everyone thinks? Especially since the knife that their father gave Fressa when he came home somehow lit up at her touch, and gave the message “Master of the Wolf”. Whatever that means, right?



I was just really into this novel, and I’m surprised that I went through this so quickly. I was so intrigued by Lena’s journey, and honestly I don’t know how she was able to go through something like this. Although I do know that if I were in her place, I don’t think I would have done it any different. Maybe certain things that I didn’t agree with, but I would have done whatever it took to get my brother back, especially if I felt like he wasn’t supposed to die. And under the circumstances that Lena found Fressa, there was no way she should have died. It just didn’t make sense.

Apparently this is Tammi’s second book, and while I haven’t read her debut yet, I felt like this was done really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed my journey reading this novel.

Nikki Sojkowski

I was given an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for honest review.

I was originally interested in this book because the cover is cute and the synopsis is very Norse-Myth heavy. If there’s one thing I love, it’s myths! The context of the story, is that our main character Lena is the eldest child of the village chief, and undertakes a quest when her little sister mysteriously dies. The quest being to bring back her sister’s soul back to Midgard (Earth). 

I was honestly kind of shocked by how dumb Lena was as a character. Is Norse myth not something she grew up with? Wouldn’t she know that her sister’s soul replacement needs to be similar in purity/skill/age/gender in order for this switch to go unnoticed? Lena struggles with finding a soul replacement candidate, when it was pretty obvious from page one what needed to be done. Even when it came to just daily life with scenes with her family and friends it felt like Lena was always 10 steps behind the reader, which shouldn’t be the case when the narrator is not omniscient. It was a genuinely bizarre experience.

Another star-detractor was the whole confusing scenario of Lena and Amal’s relationship. They allow an arranged marriage to each other pretty quickly, even though they supposedly don’t want to be married; and they were also pretty quick to want to kill each other at the slightest suggestion. It was really strange to see childhood best friends keeping secrets and turning on each other in the space of a paragraph. I don’t see how a resolution between our main characters is possible, nor how the climax prevents/delays Ragnorok in any conceivable way. There was a big moment where a magical dagger is lost to another realm, but no importance was ever imbued upon the dagger so why should it being lost have any meaning? It was just a narrative tool to reveal some information about Loki…

That allllll being said, I’m genuinely intrigued by the ending. I think Tammi has set up book two to have a different POV which will most likely make the book more enjoyable, but I’m honestly not sure if I’ll get around to it.

Vanessa Bintou

I love Norse Mythology and I'm always happy to read books related to it. Since I have read a couple of really good books about Norse mythology and a lot average, I have to say that even though The Weight of a Soul had potential it was an average book.
My main problem with the book was the pacing. It was either too slow or filed with too many things that in the end made me confused. Moreover, I really don't like it when things happen with no reason and no explanation and this book had a lot of moments like that. I won't elaborate because spoilers. 
As for the characters, I didn't connect with Lena at all and that made it more difficult to like the book in the end.

I think that this was a book with potential, but the execution and the main character could have been much better!

Thank you to the publisher and the NetGalley for the ARC provided, in exchange for an honest review.

Manon van Heumen

Earc provided in exchange for an honest review.

I mainly was excited about this book because it had Norse mythology and a mysterious death. I was let down by both.
I had hoped there were more Viking-vibes and deeper Norse mythology than just mentioning the gods.
The mysterious death wasn't what I thought it wouls be, though it definitely wasn't bad. The characters were likeable, and the story was okay, I enjoyed reading it.

The Weight of a Soul

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